Birds Of A Feather
by Anthracite95
Summary: The night Arkham Asylum is taken over by the Joker a man in rags is spat out by the sea right on the Teen Titans doorstep, after nursing him back to health Raven finds herself unable to help feeling for him, but will the man's true identity ruin their friendship and love before it even begins ?
1. Chapter 1

**Birds of a Feather**

Raven was lying on her bed, in her pyjamas, deep in thought whilst finishing off a cup of hot chocolate, getting ready to go to sleep in her room which, as usual looked as though somebody had ransacked and upended several large bookshelves in a gothic bookstore. With books lining the walls all around her room in small and large piles corkscrewing towards the ceiling and several large tomes covered in strange runes scattered around the middle of the floor along with the odd CD which Raven had recently taken accustomed to listening to while reading. There was the occasional strange looking item on a surface here and there and a few, very dusty looking stuffed animals on top of her wardrobe; not that she ever really looked in it as all she ever wore apart from her titans costume were her pyjamas which consisted off a shirt several sizes too big for her and a pair of short shorts which were as dark as her robes; which currently hung on the back of her door, which was closed.

Her windows were shuttered, blocking out the storm and the pounding rain falling outside .Her light was off, as usual, Ravens room was by far the darkest in Titan Tower. It wasn't just the kind of dark that was a simple lack of any of light present in the room; it was the kind of dark that made the active effort of making a room darker, almost unnaturally dark. Raven said that it matched her mood whenever one of the other titans stumbled their way into her room.

Not to say Raven was unhappy, she was quiet content with her present situation. She had been living in Titan Tower for 4 years now, and while she hated being banished from Azarath… Her home, she was safe here, and she had her friends around her 24-7… Raven stopped for a moment and contemplated this thought. Friends… Yes they must be, she thought to herself, over the years she had come to care for her four living partners and embrace their eccentricities and flaws.

Starfire, while her constant cheerfulness had been a severe irritation on more than one occasion along with her complete lack of knowledge of the ways of earthlings, not to mention personal space. She had been a real emotional support and as the only other female inhabitant of Titan Tower she was not the worst person to talk to when she was in one of those extremely rare moods for a "girly gossip".

Cyborg, while he was gruff and often moody or otherwise pre-occupied with either his car, food or new video games had been almost like an older brother to her during her time here. Always understanding when she was in the mood to talk, or needed to talk, and knew when it was best to just leave her alone, this level of understanding was of great comfort to Raven when something was wrong.

Robin… Raven didn't even know where to begin with that child. Because a child was exactly what he was… a sidekick with a boy wonder complex and the delusion that he was the only person in the tower whose opinion meant a damn thing because he trained with some big shot hero out in Gotham City. That said he was a good leader for the team and some of his little toys were kinda cool… Raven looked back on her first couple of weeks at Titan Tower and how stupid she was for having a crush on that guy. Even taken to mumbling "Robins and Ravens two birds of a feather" when nobody was around… the mortifying thought of it now was not even worth talking about.

While she was on the mental topic of Robin, Raven suddenly found herself getting annoyed at his relationship with Starfire all over again. Yeah it was cute first starting out and it did make Raven feel kinda in want of a boyfriend, maybe, not really. But these days there were constantly on again and off again sporadically arguing and having sex whenever they felt like it… or more whenever Robin felt like it, which annoyed Raven for two reasons. One – Robin had poor Starfire wrapped around his extending smashing stick, no pun intended. And Two – due to the fact her room was located in-between Robin and Starfires room so whenever things were good with them she was the first to know.. Way too much information for any broody slightly sexually frustrated teenage superhero to take…

And there was Beast Boy. Raven decided not to let her thoughts linger too long on Beast Boy…

Raven lay there on her bed which was half covered in old tomes, written in tongues nobody else on the planet would ever be able to read. As she lay there she allowed herself a rare smile at how the last 4 years had gone, save the world by day and eat pizza with the others before retiring to her room for reading at night. It was a nice way to exist but as of late she was starting to feel…lonely, except lonely couldn't be the right word, after all she the others around her all the time but she was starting to feel like she needed somebody to talk about ideas, life, death and maybe even the occasional discussion about music and films too … the others in the tower were just a little too… childish, for her. As great as they were as friends sometimes she just felt like she needed somebody who could actually hold an intellectual conversation with her without their eyes glazing over… somebody who … got her…

A loud alarm pierced through her train of thought and snapped her out of her reverie. Looks like it was time for work, with nothing but a tired sounding groan of annoyance and a creak from her wrought iron bed she got to her feet and grabbed her robe and chucked them on over her pyjamas. This shouldn't take long…


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N_****_ - This chapter mentions a character called Ophelia, she is not a part of the batman story but is Cranes sort of girlfriend in an awesome if tragic fan fiction called "University" by a author on here Called SeventhSister and i thought I'd just pay my dues :) and you should really go check that out just hit it in the search bar or look it up on my favourites_**

**_Chapter 2_**

It was the middle of winter in Titan city, and it was freezing, snow was falling heavier than it had for years and there was ice coating the streets and the rivers of the city, this was a brutal change from the blistering summer they had had. Titan city lies on a coast with a large stretch of water leading off to other huge, crime infested metropolises. It was on this shore, more specifically on the tiny island that titan tower was placed upon… that a ragged and frozen form washed up… Tall and skinny, dressed in frozen, soaking rags long battered beyond any recognition of what they may have been before. Just like the man wearing them. The form shuddered and coughed violently, he was alive… Which in of itself was a phenomenal feat, it was way below 0 degrees in the water and he looked as though he had been in the water for some time, by all rights he should have frozen to death or drowned hours ago… Yet here he was…

He was tall, with medium length hair pulled back behind his ears; his face was as white as a ghost with his eyes sunken into his sockets and his prominent cheekbones jolting from the man's violent shivers… He had survived thus far… but even the most novice of medics could of told you this man was dying, very slowly but very surely, he was covered in bruises and if the hypothermia didn't get him the blood dripping half-heartedly from the stump where his left hand should have been will.

Yet. He stood up, and let out a scream, not a scream of pain, or one of triumph… it was a scream of all consuming rage…. Rage and fear, aimed at nothing in particular, as though he was shouting at the world, and the devil underneath it and expecting a pretty damn good answer and then… Oddly, he chuckled. Short, yet definite as if whatever answers he had got were pretty funny... He had survived the night and he would be damned if he was going to stop and rest now… He took a few steps towards the huge "T" shaped structure up the shore from him, but 2 steps away from the icy depths it was clear he had no strength to stand, and he collapsed… the man was furious with himself, at his own weakness and his own body's unwillingness to get up when there was so much to do… yet he understood… So cold, so so cold. He started to crawl, desperate to reach the tower, this man was no fool, and he knew if he did not get medical attention immediately he would die.

And he could not allow that.

For he was a man obsessed.

There was still work to be done.

One crawling drag after the other, pulling himself inch by inch closer and closer to the tower, only slightly faster than the incoming tide, the moonlight reflecting off this giant glass structure… Guiding this lost soul, not 10 feet from the door now, 5 feet, 3 feet. It was unclear whether it was salt water or tears running down this man's face as he leaped upwards with the last of his strength and threw all of his weight into the door which, thankfully opened with a crash and an alarm.

The man did not care for the alarm, it would only draw people, and hopefully help to him… and he could just lay there. With no strength to move and barely any to breath, he could feel unconsciousness claiming him; darkness was starting to shroud the outer edges of his vision, for what could be the last time. He was about to receive his rest. And he allowed his mind to wander… about his life and how he ended up on the floor of a strange building, freezing to death with only one hand. His thoughts ran through the events of the night, with the asylum and that bastard bat. And that creature that took his arm in the sewers before he could escape and drifted through the sewer system out into the ocean. Oddly… his thoughts drew him to the fleeting memories of his life before all of this, teaching psychology at Gotham university… he couldn't help but wonder how it all came from that boring and, rather satisfying enough life… to this, which, of course made him think of Ophelia… his darling Ophelia… but those thoughts only brought more pain, and anger… ever since he lost her he was doomed to be alone. So desperately lonely, and for a moment he wished to die, to be able to join her again… but he jarred himself, he couldn't leave yet, he needed to make the world know exactly what it was like to lose everything you care for, and yourself in the process. To feel the hatred and fear glowing from a city burning itself to the ground, to watch all the "civilized people" eat one another. Only then could he finally stop this crusade of vengeance and rest once more, find a city that didn't know him, and settle down and find something boring to do. Quietly he wondered whether this city, wherever he was… would have accepted him years down the line, or more deeply at the back of his mind… if he could ever stop this, if he could ever hang up this monster he had forced himself to become. But that was thought for a much less dire time…

He didn't know where he was, and he didn't care, as he heard muffled voices getting louder and louder towards him, panicked voices. He swore this place will learn the true meaning of fear… he would make sure of it… he was finding it an immense task to keep his eyes open for any longer. So he closed them.

And 2 minutes later Jonathan Crane died right there, on the floor of Titan Tower.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter 3_**

Raven emerged groggy and ill-tempered from her room. Being forced to go save the city at this hour, "somebody had better be planning world domination" Raven thought to herself darkly... It appeared she was not the only one, as a green rooster ran out of the room opposite and past her squawking "cock-adoodle-do!" and meanwhile in the room next to her Robin and Starfire emerged looking dishevelled and very annoyed at the interruption. It would appear either way things were going, she wouldn't have gotten much sleep tonight anyway. Raven tried to be happy for Starfire but she just couldn't muster it for what must be the 12th time around now… Cyborg was nowhere to be seen, most likely whatever it was that was happening he got the alert sent right into his brain-computer … Thing… And was in the garage sorting some kind of transportation, Raven internally groaned "Great… A long distance trip"

They all ran to the computer in the main foyer of Titan Tower, they were already on amber alert thanks to Robins precious mentor, The Batman. Who was dealing with some issue in some big criminal mental asylum up in Gotham city, and the first thought that ran through Ravens head was that the Batman had ran into something he couldn't manage and had called in reinforcements which did worry Raven more than a little bit… Yeah he hadn't exactly performed miracles for Robins sparkling personality but in terms of fighting crime as a mortal with no superhuman powers Robin was good and if the guy who had trained him couldn't handle something she wasn't too sure there was a lot they could do to help. It was quiet a widely held belief that out of the network of heroes out there batman was one of the best… If he had been beaten… Raven didn't even want to think about the freaks that could then become their problem. … The Batman came to visit them once before when he needed Robin to stand in for him for the night when he went after some "Azreal" and while he was their the bat was actually really nice if a little bit broody but she could relate. Whatever happened to Robin she will never know.

She was jolted back out of her head by the situation, somebody had tripped the alarm on the front door, and somebody had got into Titan tower! Everybody else was already half way to the elevator and she ran to catch up…

This had happened once or twice before, a bad guy got too big for their boots and tried to hit them where they lived, it wasn't like they hid conspicuously… But something told Raven this wasn't an invasion, it was too quiet… and as the five of them exited the lift they saw straight away that there was no invasion, it was a man lying on the hard stone floor of the entrance hall shaking with hypothermia, soaked to the bone, and breathing frantically, the kind of desperate rasping that you got right before you passed on, Cyborg was already at his side and trying to analyse what the man needed… when the alert was triggered cyborg must have come straight down here instead of going to the computer in the main foyer first…Ravens stomach instantly dropped out onto the floor as she saw the bleeding stump of the figures arm. This man was going to die, right there in front of them, again Raven had to be snapped out of her reverie by Robin, running over to Cyborg and the man, followed shortly by Starfire and Beastboy. Raven walked over as Cyborg shook his head as he opened his mouth to speak. " He's got a half hour to live at most; we should take him up to the infirmary and make him comfortable"

"Dude isn't there anything we can do? Surely we can do something!" protested Beastboy.

"Sorry Beastboy but this guy, whoever he is… whatever's happened to him he is beyond the point of medicine helping him, he must have been in that ocean for hours and it looks like something tried to eat him! There's nothing I can do for him except make him comfortable" replied Cyborg with a grim shake of his head.

He was right after all, this man looked about as close to death as you could get without seeing a bright light, the rasping had stopped and his breaths were shallow gasps, his clothes were rags and his long dark hair hung over his scarred face, pale as a skull; Which was a shame because before whatever happened to him he may have been rather nice to look at. Raven couldn't help but feel sorry for this man, being tossed around by the sea all night and to have survived and find safety only to die on the floor. Raven felt uncharacteristically sorry for this man, whoever he was. But even she was surprised by the words coming out of her mouth, interrupting Robin and Cyborg who were arguing over what to do with the would be corpse

"I'm just saying it would be a lot easier if…!" started Cyborg

"Enough!" shouted Raven, startling her team mates, she never shouted. "I might be able to help him…"

"What with your magic?" asked Beastboy tilting his head

"No with my dazzling charm and good looks…" said Raven scowling. "Yes with my magic you idiot!"

"That's great Raven, sooooo what are you waiting for, do it already" exclaimed Robin.

Raven tried to calm her temper at this, of course she hadn't thought to do it straight away how silly of her, after all robin was the only one here with a brain. "Well… there's slight catch, just like Cyborg said, he's beyond recovering from this, and he can't be saved whether it be with magic or medicine, but I might be able to bring him back once he's dead…"

And at this the other titans looked up from the corpse to be on their floor, pale flesh, skin and bone lying there, eyes staring up without really seeing, body shaking violently from the cold; blood leaking in pulses from his wound, mouth open, and the only sound was the man's fading breath getting shallower and shallower, eventually coming to a shuddering rattle, and stopped.

It was Beastboy who broke the silence with a very good question.

"Ummmm Starfire? Why are you wearing Robin's belt?"


	4. Chapter 4

**_Chapter 4_**

Raven instantly took charge of the situation…

"Right, we need to move fast, we have a hour before he's gone for good, Cyborg carry him into the main foyer and lay him down on his back, and move all of the furniture out of the way, Robin go down to the basement and turn off the power, Beastboy, go to my room and look on one of my shelves for a black and blue box, it's the size of a juice box and has 4 red slashes on the lid, and you need to find a book under my bed, called " The Adepts Guide To Practical Necromancy", it's a huge tome, you can't miss it,"

"And me Raven? What will you have me do?" said Starfire, obviously eager to help in any way she could.

"uhhh, you come with me and Cyborg Star… I might need your help setting up."

In the main foyer Cyborg was tossing furniture against the walls and Raven was sitting cross legged in mid-air as she often did, trying to mask her anxiety, why did she offer to do this?! She had never attempted a resurrection before and it was extremely dangerous, so many things could go wrong she didn't even want to think about it. She had once seen pictures of people who had attempted resurrections and had made a mistake in a book of magical injury's she got 2 years ago for her birthday and the pictures had grossed her out so much she couldn't keep down her birthday cake. Maybe she wouldn't have minded if it had been for one of her teammates but for a stranger who the sea happened to chuck onto her front door? Why would she care, but still she couldn't help shaking the thought that there was something about this stranger, either way she was at least attempting to do the right thing which was what heroes do right? Her train of thought would of continued further if Beastboy hadn't rudely interrupted  
"I found the book and the box Raven!" announced Beastboy

"Good, set them down on that table over there" replied Raven indicating to the small table near the west corner of the room that cyborg had rather unceremoniously lobbed across the room only seconds earlier. She was rather pleased that Beastboy had managed the simple task without either getting it mixed up or making a terrible joke, " Ok guys we're just waiting on Robin to turn out the…" And just like that all the lights in titan tower went out and the room was plunged into darkness. Raven reached into the small metal carton like box and pulled out some candles and proceeded to light them and let go of the, leaving them to float in mid-air.

"Ok Cyborg put him down gently in the middle of the room and I'll start" said Raven.  
"Are you sure this is a good idea Raven?" Asked Robin who had just emerged from downstairs at the entrance to the room, "Yeah Raven, I mean what if he wakes up a zombie and starts eating our brains?!" concurred Beastboy looking somewhat genuinely concerned that the man in front of them will wake up and turn cannibal. "Well I'm sure you will be completely safe Beastboy." Replied Raven smirking as she reached for the book and began flipping through the chapters, looking for the correct ritual.

The Titans stood there in the darkened room for what seemed like an age, the only light coming from the candles floating at head height off the floor and the occasional lighting strike outside, the only sound being the thunder and Raven occasionally mumbling the odd word until she found what she was looking for.

"Summoning…. Reanimations… Revivals… aha! Here we are Resurrections!" announced Raven proudly slamming the book down by the side of the man's body and reaching inside the little metal box, this time for a stick of crimson red chalk… Then, only stopping every now and again for reference to a diagram in the book she proceeded to draw a seven sided star across the room, with the body in the centre.

Robin tentatively walked up to raven who was starting to draw rune and incantations along the outside edge of the star and put his hand on her shoulder "Raven, I'm serious, are you sure this is a good idea? We have no idea who this guy is and what if you can't do it?"

Raven shrugged off his hand and replied rather curtly "while your faith in me is overwhelming it'll be fine, and even if I do pull this off… This guy, whoever he is will still be far too weak to do us any harm, by eating our brains or otherwise, he'll be too weak to stand for a few days at least… Satisfied? Now can you and the others please stand against the far wall I'm going to start the ritual. And the last thing I want to be doing after this is scraping Beastboy off the wall."

Raven finished drawing the last rune into the 7th point of the star and sat down next to the body and started reciting some kind of incantation in an alien language, the others didn't understand a word of what she was saying but after about 5 minutes they started to notice the candles, still floating precariously in mid-air… Start to dim and slowly but surely extinguished one by one, Ravens chanting grew louder and louder, and if it wasn't just Robins imagination, the body was hovering, ever so slightly, maybe an inch or so off the floor.

Out of the almost complete darkness, only broken by the occasional lightning bolt outside, Ravens chanting stopped as soon as it had started, as sudden as the lightning, with the notion "that's it, I'm done."

"CRACKASH!" the biggest bolt of lightning any of the titans had ever seen struck the tower the candles burst back into life with the flames growing way beyond their natural size, flames were pouring up to and off of the ceiling of the room as if like water, the heat was unbearable and it was no trick of the light now the body was definitely floating a good metre or two off of the floor and thrashing as though possessed by a demon. The titans were getting unnerved and had visibly shuffled as far against the wall as possible, except for Raven, who had not moved a muscle since she started the resurrection. The thrashing corpse started to rotate into a standing position, several metres now off the floor, where the markings raven had made were glowing an indescribable shade of purple, at an odd juxtaposition with the flames dancing off the ceiling casting an all too eerie light across the room and over the man's face, then, a heart stopping roar echoed out across the tower, it was coming from the man, if his rattling breaths earlier was the sound somebody made when they were dying the titans could only imagine this was the sound made by someone being pulled back from the grave, it was hard to imagine it as anything else…

And then, just as suddenly as Raven had announced she was supposedly done, the roaring scream cut out, the flames died and the man fell to the floor in a heap. Breathing...And alive. Not to mention conscious, he looked shocked and out of breath ("who could blame him? He was dead a minute ago" reasoned Raven). The bleeding stump had congealed and scabbed over with an unhealthy looking scar, the flames had at least dried the man's soaking rags tattering his body. He sat bolt upright, in an all too ironic imitation of a vampire, he looked confused to be waking up in such strange surroundings with such strange looking people around him, he turned his head to Raven, sitting cross-legged at his side, mouth agape. The man's confusion turned to one of amazement, relief and joy. A grateful smile broke out across his face, he was grinning ear to ear. Raven had to admit a grin like that looked scary on this man… Scary and unnatural. Raven couldn't help but smile back; it looked equally unnatural and alien on her.

"Ophelia" sighed the man, looking at Raven as though she were some kind of angel. With that, the man closed his eyes slumped to the floor, and was still once more, Unconscious.

Robin edged slowly from the corner, there was no way he could of heard what the man had said, Raven had barely heard it herself, she was confused at the man's reaction and she'd have to go back to her room and puzzle it over later, for now she would just have to make do with the expression of Robins face, who looked like he had just wet his tights, clearly disturbed by everything he had just saw, with a stuttering voice he said to Raven " we are NEVER doing that again!"


	5. Chapter 5

**_A/N- right i know im building this up massively but i promise Raven and Crane will meet properly in the next chapter, story has been established, let me know in reviews any ideas or constructive criticisms you have, as always be sure to follow, favourite or whatever and if you're still wondering who the hell this Ophelia chick is i urge you to go look on my favorites for a story titled "university" by seventhsister - enjoy! :D_**

**_Chapter 5_**

Two and a half weeks had passed by the time Crane woke up in bed. Not that he had any idea of how long it had been. Minutes? Years? All he knew was that he was warm, safe and alive, needless he was not happy about this at all. He was FINALLY free, he could move past his anger and on to whatever's next where his Ophelia was waiting for him… Yet here he was. If he wasn't so damn tired he'd trash the room and everything in it. But he settled for simply taking note of his surroundings instead, indignant and childish destruction can come later... he appeared to be In some sort of infirmary, definitely not any general hospital that's for sure. The walls were concrete and the various medical equipment and monitors were far more sophisticated than anything he had ever seen in Arkham, let alone a hospital, hell some of it even looked hand-made; Crane had to admit he was impressed by how intricate some of it looked. Crane took stock of the situation, whoever was taking care of him, they were well-funded and either of genius intellect or very well connected, maybe both, judging by the lack of windows and the general feel of the room he'd say he was underground... And most importantly, whoever was holding him as either their patient or prisoner hadn't realised he had come around yet.

Crane grinned and sat upright in his bed and was instantly rewarded with a lightning bolt of pain ricocheting around his skull damn near blinding him and turning the volume up from the slightest beep from that damned monitor to unbearable levels, wait… Lightning bolt… The storm! The sea! The asylum… The tower on this island… It all flooded back to him in pulses, at the rate of his rapidly increasing heartbeat, he remembered it all, he escaped that …Thing, in the sewers of the asylum and fell into the sea, and was carried by the waves to the tower, he got inside and collapsed on the floor, the memory was coming back to him, getting sharper and detail and confidence with every moment.

There was something else too, not a memory more like a nightmare fleeing his grasp upon awakening. There was a room, and there was lightning, it was hot… Fire was everywhere around him pouring upwards into the air in jets and cascading off a ceiling.. then there was chanting, demonic chanting, not coming as sound through his ears but reverberating around his skull like a noise, a message of pure evil… he couldn't help but wonder if he was in hell for a moment or two…but that wouldn't make sense, they don't have infirmary's this nice in hell, Crane dismissed his nightmare (along with the image of Satan in a doctors uniform writing out prescriptions for eternal damnation to be taken once a lifetime with meals) as a rather amusing side effect of whatever anesthesia they gave him for his… Oh Christ his hand! He looked under the covers and saw the shape of a hand on the end of his wounded arm, covered in bandages, did he just imagine it being bitten clean off then? With his free hand he started to unravel bandages layer by layer running from his elbow, down his arm, to his wrist and finally ( was he holding his breath?! Idiotic behaviour ) his hand, he started to unravel the last of the bandages and they all just slumped off his hand in a heap, except it wasn't his hand, or anybody's hand for that matter, he didn't imagine it… His arm was bitten off, and it would appear whatever technical genius who made those monitors took a minute to craft him a fully functioning robotic hand, it was a true marvel of engineering, a metal framework with the same skeletal structure of the human hand running into stump of his arm at the wrist! Crane was in awe as he lifted the hand up to the light so he could study it better, it was a little weighty but nowhere near as heavy as it looked. He tried to flex his fingers… But it would appear it's going to take some practice to get it working properly because the only movement that he could manage was a slight twitch in his little finger None the less it was clear to Crane he owed a huge debt of gratitude to the mysterious mechanical mastermind behind the technology that saved his life and gave him back a right hand.

Crane thought was interrupted by one of the monitors he was rigged up to which beeped twice abruptly and said in a mechanical voice "administering." Administering what? Then he saw the liquid flowing from an IV above his bed down a tube into his good arm, figures, he noticed everything there was to notice in the room but didn't stop and look at the great big needle sticking out of his arm. Crane decided, uncharacteristically, to accept his current situation, while he wasn't dead he was clearly in no fit state to be going anywhere or doing anything. Besides, it would appear he stumbled into the right tower at the right near death experience because whoever found him seemed to be taking good care of him. Crane settled down, made himself comfortable and waited for whatever drugs they were pumping him full of to take effect. Annoyingly he was kind of enjoying the feeling of not caring and the optimism that came from the sedatives as they took hold of him, it felt like a weight that had been on his shoulders for many years had finally been eased, he felt free from the vengeful vice that had all but consumed him for all these years. He knew the feeling would never last, but for now he just let it slide. His eyelids became impossible to hold open and the all too familiar frightening feeling of darkness claiming his world, he drifted peacefully off to the sleep for the first time in what had been far too long, with nothing but a nonchalant "goodnight" to the shadowy corner with the striking purple eyes that were watching him the entire time.


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N - First off once again thanks for all the views, the fact that what started out as a little curiosity habit has gotten a fair number of views now is actually a really good feeling and secondly i do apologize for the delay in getting this chapter sorted, college has started up again and life has just been chaotic as ever. Finally i would like to give a rather cheesy shout out/ recommendation to a fan fiction for Loki and Darcy from Marvel written by lokiXdarcy. she's the one who got me into this stuff and has been very nice reviewing and grammar checking my chapters for me so, yeah. If you wanna read something by somebody who actually knows what their doing check out lokiXdarcys fan fiction " Across Star Riddled Skies" - now on with the show!**_

Chapter 6

Raven had to admit- she was intrigued by this mysterious man. The man who washed up on their shore, the man who died in front of her… The man she had saved. It had been two weeks since the events of that night and raven had taken to spending a couple of hours here and there in the infirmary reading, it was in the basement so it was dark and quiet enough, nobody ever came down here, and again she was fascinated by their mysterious guest. She could already hear Robin now if he found out where she had been disappearing to this past fortnight…

"What the hell are you doing Raven?!"

"We have no idea who he is!"  
"He could be dangerous…"

Robin was beyond paranoid about their guest; he had run facial scans, blood tests, fingerprints scans, the works on him and run it through the criminal database and it had come up with nothing, which meant one of two things. Either he was presumed dead in whatever accident he was clearly in and had his record removed or… Much more likely… he wasn't a criminal. Besides; even if he was dangerous what could he do?! He was comatose! Not to mention recovering from a past death experience… besides what exactly is a weakened, wounded cripple going to do to harm her? She wasn't exactly defenceless… She pushed robin's paranoia to the back of her mind and continued to flick through her book, not really taking anything in.

It must have been the middle of the night when the beeping from Cyborgs custom made life support machines started to beep faster than usual, indicating something was up, and to hell it was. Several days ahead of what Raven had scheduled the man was awake and looking around the room, taking in his new surroundings… Odd; even a man as heavily sedated as the one in front of her waking up after being dead for a while to find himself in completely alien surrounding should… rightfully, be terrified out of his wits, but this man seemed completely at ease with his situation, almost bored. So instead of calling for the others or raising the alarm like she should, she remained in her seat in the darkened little alcove in the corner of the room and watched the man regain his senses.

What happened next all happened very fast, the man went to sit up and let out a gasp of pain and for that split second Raven saw everything she was expecting from the man. Pain, confusion, realisation and shock … "Still no fear? Interesting" mused Raven as the man started to unravel the bandage to his new prosthetic hand Cyborg fished out for him in his spares box, Cyborg reasoned there was no point making him a proper one until he was awake and able to co-operate in helping him calibrate it. The man lifted the metal framework of his new hand, his face a blank mask once more, blank… but obviously just as intrigued in the hand as Raven was in this strange person.

The IV in the man's arm started to pump more fluids into him and Raven got ready to get up in case he started panicking and ripped it out of his arm, but… Unsurprisingly he didn't, he just lay back down, got himself comfortable and bade her goodnight! … Shit! He knew she was there the whole time?! She didn't know whether to start worrying like Robin or be amused at the fact the man noticed she was there where barely anybody would have seen her. She stopped herself for a moment and realised the scale of the whirlwind of questions floating around her mind…  
"Who is this man?"  
"Where did he come from?"  
"Why did he wake up so early?"

"Why was he so calm?"

Amongst all these questions Raven couldn't help but notice in the back of her mind how refreshingly aloof his voice was.

It was settled, she was going to turn the sedating machine off and wait for him to come round again.

Raven stayed at the side of man's bed waiting for him to awaken and 4 hours later ("again 2 hours ahead of the minimum caused by that dose of sedative, what is going on?!") She was jolted from her meditation by a sharp, clinical voice with a slight Gotham accent

"Didn't anybody ever tell you it's rude to spy on people while they're in a coma?" said the Gothamnite with a really annoying one sided smile, the kind of smile that made you feel inferior just looking at it. He opened his eyes and for the first time Raven saw them for the pale form of icy blue they were, which she had to confess looked really nice with his complexion and his jet black ( if completely weather beaten) hair.

Raven quickly recovered from her daze and realised he was joking so, uncharacteristically, she decided to retort "No, didn't anybody ever tell you to knock before just barging into somebody's home?" This made the other side of man's mouth rise up into a now symmetrical and genuinely warm smile. "_Somebody was laughing at one of her jokes?_" Raven decided instantly she liked this guy, speaking of which… "So you got a name, or are we going to have to just keep calling you "the mysterious stranger who woke us up?"  
Crane new better than to use his real name, he had a feeling all this hospitality would come to an end if they knew he was a super villain, maybe time to employ a trick that ridiculous clown uses…

"Jack – Jack White. And to who do I owe the pleasure of my life and this mechanical wonder?" indicating to his arm

"That would be Cyborg, but as for bringing you back from the dead… I'm Raven, it's nice to meet you."  
"And the same to you …Raven. Now I do not wish to intrude further on your hospitality but I feel like I haven't eaten for a week and wait… Did you just say you brought me back from the dead?!"

"It's more like two weeks actually, to be honest we didn't expect you to wake up for at least another, and as for the back from the dead thing… Follow me up to the kitchen, I'll explain everything and you can meet the rest of us"

And as Crane slowly and very unsteadily got to his feet it was his turn to have questions flying around his skull, the major one of which that ended up articulated was "the rest of us?"

"Yeah, Gotham has Batman, but over here we're the ones saving the world and all that crap, we call ourselves the Teen Titans"

And as Crane walked out of the room, stumbling here and there, he was glad he had the initiative to hide his real name from whoever this Girl Scout was… Teen Titans? Please!


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N - again sorry for the delays guys, college has been anarchy personified. Promise to get the next one finished faster, anyways as always reviews and follows are much appreciated :)**

Chapter 7

This had to be the most awkward breakfast ever.

Crane was sat around a table in what could loosely be described as the kitchen in titan tower, with a rather worrying looking tofu form foodstuff cooked for him by the green one sitting opposite him. Besides the young girl ("I say young, she can't be more than 6 years younger than me" self- corrected crane) that brought him upstairs where this "team" (he had to stifle a laugh at that) was preparing breakfast. There was green guy and the metal man in the kitchen and the green eyed girl and some kid who looked like the bats errand boy, but a little too tall and heavily built to possibly be the Robin he knew, this confirmed his long standing suspicion that there has been always more than one Robin. "Does that mean there's more than one Batman?" now there was a worrying thought Crane didn't want to ponder over the breakfast table… Anyways where was he?

"…And you fell unconscious and you've been in our infirmary ever since. You've had some ups and down in that time but as we can see by you standing here you've pulled through just fine." Finished the wannabe Robin who not only obviously didn't recognize him, (had he thought this one before?) He was being overly cordial and was helpfully bringing him up to speed on what exactly happened to him and how the hooded girl brung him back from the dead ( "Just a little bit weird, even for him" he thought to himself. Never the less he was grateful.) "So how about telling us a little bit about you Mr…?"

"Jack White" Crane finished confidently, now comfortable in his new identity, and from there the lie just slotted perfectly into place. "I was working my first week at the old Asylum in Gotham city, as a psychological analyst, The Joker decided to turn the place into his own little personal funhouse I hid in the sewers underneath the asylum, I was hoping nobody would think to go down there and I'd be safe there… Well as you can see by my hand Killer Croc had other plans for me. Bit it clean off as I was flowing out into the ocean, I honestly thought I was a going to die out there, but obviously you had some other plans, where am I anyways, who are you guys? Aren't you a little young to be playing superheros?"

"Well we saved your butt no obviously not!" shouted Beastboy.

"Beastboy calm down, we're the Teen Titans Mr white and you're in Titan city. I'm supposing as soon as you're well enough to leave and Cyborg can help fine tune that arm you'll be heading back to Gotham?"

Crane considered this for a moment, if he went back to Gotham it would only be a matter of time before he was found again, if not by the Bat then by that quack Hugo Strange and his ranting about some super prison. But here he had a clean slate, nobody knew who he was and he would be free to go about his recovery and plans without hindrance, and as he looked around the table at who was guarding this otherwise defenceless city, sizing up his odds. So far the only one with any brains was the girl in the hood, OK the metal man, what was his name? Cyborg? Must be pretty smart too but he was part machine, which means he could be shut off. The green guy and the green eyed girl didn't seem to be very much at all in the brains department as they were now examining each other's reflections in their spoons… And as for this Robin stand in or whatever he was, he wasn't too bright but he couldn't be under estimated, after all the bat probably trained him himself, so his mind was probably a lot stronger than it appeared at first glance and there was no competition in a straight fight between Him or any of them, especially now with his hand which was actually starting to twinge abit. His mind was made up and his plan was made… He was going to stay in this tower for a week or two until he was well enough to leave, which also gave him time to learn everything he possibly could about his new foes- Then he would leave and see if he couldn't retrieve one of his little backup funds he had in various accounts in case something like this ever happened (a maniac he may be, but don't let nobody say he was an unprepared one.) find a living quarters with a large enough basement for his experiments and then prepare a new assault on this strange new city. A new tide of fear would seep through the city like a poison. And from the destroyed ruins of this city he would gather his materials and make his way back to Gotham and the Croc… And The Batman.

His mind was mas made up

"No thank you Robin, actually I think what I will do is maybe start looking for a new job and home here in Titan city, Gotham has gotten too crazy and Batman can't handle it anymore ("it was worth it to see the look on this wannabe Robins face" thought Crane with a grin), I may see how things turn out for me here, and if the people who have saved my life ever need a therapist or a chemist you'll know where to come" announced Crane with the most friendly and grateful smile he could muster

"Well that's great!" replied Robin with a gleeful look (wow, he really wasn't too bright was he) "Titan City can always do with more good people around"

"and we can certainly do with more friends!" interjected the green eyed girl, whose eyes were now glowing a startling shade of emerald, as though somebody had shone a flashlight behind her eyes, it was a little strange to look at. "She does that" replies Cyborg who caught the worried look Crane was giving Starfires fluorescent eyes. "Anyways are you ready to get that arm working or what?" continued Cyborg

"ummmm actually…"

" don't be ridiculous Cyborg, he's just woken up after being unconscious for 2 weeks and it's obvious his arm must be killing him." Said Raven who had only now spoken for the first time until they joined the others, and he was glad she had, he was tired, and his arm was hurting.

"I wouldn't say it's killing m-"

"give him a day or two to get used to it being there instead of his real hand and to get used to walking around and being alive again… he's been pretty mangled and some time to regain his senses is what's best for him right now…" finished Raven, once again cutting Crane off but finishing what he wanted to say regardless. " Sure, that sounds like a good idea, you're the magic voodoo lady" said Beastboy in agreeance

"I'm going to ignore that, anyways Jack I'll show you to the spare room if you want, its abit more comfortable than the infirmary."

"ummm, yeah sure thanks Raven." Replied Crane taken off guard by the kindness this girl had shown her as he followed her down the staircase…

"Was it just me, or did Raven just care for another humans emotional wellbeing?" asked Beastboy, clearly confused.

"Thats the least of things on my mind Beastboy, Cyborg we need to get in contact with the asylum and ask them about a Jack White."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The next few days were an absolute whirlwind. One moment he would be in Cyborgs workshop getting his new appendage calibrated to his nervous system sporadically between idle debate and comparison of biological notes, and the next he would be with Robin in the command room, observing criminal attack patterns of the city and giving his tactical opinion. He had learnt that Cyborg was involved in a pretty bad accident and they had to practically rebuild him from nothing, and with not much left to the remains of his life he signed up with the teen titans and had been living here ever since. He acted like the paternal figure of the team and he was almost enjoying working on Cranes hand, getting him to move three fingers, then two, and then grip a glass without crushing it. "Trust me it's weird to start off with and difficult to get the hang of it you'll wonder what you ever did without it" Remarked Cyborg as he shifted his hand from a normal looking hand with finger and stuff to a tiny blowtorch and set to work on a computer chip the size of a postage stamp. The result of this giant metal man working on something so delicately on something so minute was almost comical. "Nice accessory" commented crane as he observed Cyborg expertly weld the soldering to the circuit board. "Thanks, as you can see I made a few improvements on my original parts, I doubt the surgeon who put me together had in mind half the stuff I do." Replied Cyborg, "There we go… One transceiver capacitor, hold still" he finished as he started wiring the chip into Cranes hand. "Where did you learn to do all this stuff anyway?" he asked as he watched with fascination as lights in the chip went from red to green as they were wired "I doubt there's a collage course in making mechanical body parts."  
" When you become half man, half machine overnight you do tend to have the habit to become very interested in mechanics overnight, I would recommend learning some of the basics, stops you having to coming back to the tower whenever something goes wrong with your hand. What's going on with you and Raven anyway?" Crane was as taken aback from his sudden change of topic as he was confused "What do you mean?"

"Well she doesn't normally talk to anybody around here, like ever. She keeps herself to herself as much as she can and reads, but since you've been up and around she's been eating dinner at the table with the rest of us and you two have been talking a lot, and I was just thinking that maybe…"  
Crane finally caught on, "Oh no! No no no no, no. She's just been good to me since I got here and we have a lot in common to talk about, which, I have to be honest, is kinda nice. Nobody back in Gotham ever had much time for any of my theories. We're just friends though, seriously." Crane could kind of see where Cyborg could have got the notion; whenever he did have any spare time and wasn't drugged up with painkillers he did spend most of it with Raven; either on the roof at night when he couldn't sleep, looking out over the bay, or reading in mutually comfortable silence in the lounge or (what is most likely to make Cyborg think there was something going on between them) in Ravens room, looking through the stacks upon stacks of books ( the girl had a serious thing for the occult he had to give her that) . Fact of the matter is over the last couple of days Raven has been acting towards him in a way he expected a friend would act. Which as completely alien to him as it was, it felt kind of nice. However he couldn't afford to start thinking of these people as friends, they were the enemy and in a matter of weeks he may have to end up fighting, and beating these people who have shown him so much kindness. The idea of doing so didn't unsettle him too much, he had betrayed people before, but for reasons he couldn't explain he was a little bothered about the idea of using his fear gas on Raven…

Later that night Crane was tossing and turning in his bed, he was finding it difficult to get back to sleep after his third consecutive nightmare involving a violent death. "This was getting ridiculous" he thought to himself as he sat up and made his way out of his room to the kitchen to grab a drink, "Me?! Getting scared of something to the point where I can't sleep?! If the sea and the croc didn't kill me the irony will!" He was so wrapped up in self scorn he did walked clean into something in the corridor, said something promptly told him to watch where the hell he was going and turned out to be Raven, on her ass in her pyjamas on the floor, rubbing her head. "I'm so sorry, are you ok?" asked Crane to which he received an irritable "yeah I'm fine, now are you going to just stand there gawping like Beastboy or are you going to help me up?" From Raven as she held out her hand to be helped up as Crane took it and pulled her to her feet "can't sleep either?" Remarked Crane noticing how much less "Queen of Death" Raven looked in what he could only assume were her PJ's, which looked much less threatening than her big scary robe… in fact if it weren't for prior knowledge he'd say she was a perfectly normal 18 year old

"I'm not much of a sleeper anyway; I'm just coming back from the kitchen, Robins used the last of the mint flavoured hot chocolate again… remind me to do something horrible to him for me would you?" complained Raven, dusting herself off. Crane couldn't help but smirk at this "sure thing, see you tomorrow Raven, I'm dying for something to drink" he replied, as we walked past Raven he couldn't help but notice she looked a little conflicted, like she wanted to say something but….

"If you're having trouble sleeping… I was going to go to this place I go in the city when I can't sleep… if you would like to come with me?" Asked Raven; almost timidly. "What kind of place?" Asked Crane, intrigued.

"A place that does mint hot chocolate"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 **

The next day crane woke up in Titan Tower rather pleased with the world as it currently was, he had had a most enjoyable night last night at the coffee house/library place in midtown with Raven and today was the day he would set out into the city and build himself a brand new base of operations, first he would have to pick up one of his many emergency funds, then sort out some kind of residence ( or evil lair, whichever was more readily available) and then get to work on some kind of plan to take this pitiful city. Along the way he will check in with the titans, it pays to know ones enemies and as far as they were concerned Jack White was now a good friend of the team. It had to be said he did rather enjoy his time here, seeing how the good guys lived their lives and when it came down to it they were little more than teenagers living together and fighting crime. He had had fun temporarily taking part in it, apart from the one occasion where Cyborg dragged him into playing something the green one called "Stank Ball"… Never again.

Crane promptly got dressed, helped himself to an apple from the kitchen and set out to the Docks of TItan city. As he wandered the streets searching for the right place he found himself a in the middle of a moral dilemma, after last night he was starting to almost think of Raven as an equal, a Confidante or maybe even a friend, but he couldn't afford to think like that… sooner or later he was going to have to one by one knock the titans into the dirt, and that Included Raven. It sucked but in the end it was what he was going to have to do if he wanted to show this city the true meaning of the word fear. The closest these walking pies of scum had ever come to it before was most likely a cheesy horror movie… Pathetic.

"Here was the place" thought Crane to himself as he found himself in the rundown train city for the Metropolis- Gotham expressway which runs through a bunch of smaller towns along the way, including Titan city and Blűdhaven. The train was seldom used by most people because they all thought the other cities down the tracks were crime infested cesspits, they were all correct. He walked up to the information booth on the far side of the station and tapped the glass loudly to wake the rather overweight middle aged man dozing in the booth, who grunted and awoke with a jolt, he looked rather surprised to see a man like Crane, in a borrowed 3 piece suit in this part of town. "Yeah? Whaddy'ya wan'?" asked the man abruptly. Ignoring both the rudeness of the man and the large mustard stain on his shirt Crane politely replied "ah yes, I rent one of the lockers here long term and I was wandering if you had a spare key for locker 115?"

"You got I.D?"

"I'm afraid not, will a signature do?" replied Crane. The man grunted loudly, got to his feet and opened a filing cabinet until he took out a folder labelled "115". "Match the signature on this file and recite your security phrase and you can have the key" Informed the man curtly, obviously still pissed off at having his nap ruined. "Ok… here's the signature" said Crane handing the scrawled on sheet back to the man, "and my security phrase is Ophelia"

"Ophelia Ophelia …. Ahhh here it is" mumbled the man ruffling through the papers "here, it's all yours; just bring the key back when you're done."

I will. Thank you" replied Crane already walking towards the locker and opening it to find two large gym bags which he quickly retrieved, lifted them one over each shoulder, returned the key and asked if the man would be so kind as to call him a cab. Time to go shopping.

Crane didn't pay attention to a word the man driving the cab said on the drive to downtown, his mind had wandered off again, this time to the coffee shop last night where Raven and him talked from what must have been midnight until dawn about everything and anything, turned out they had a lot in common, They liked the same food, the same music and after the hot chocolate they even found out they have their tea the same way. It was uncanny. It almost made him sad to know that friendship with her will be impossible the second he starts getting to work. Still….

His train of thought was interrupted as the cab stopped outside of a large block of apartments. "That'll be £22.50"said the cab driver, holding his hand out expectantly, Crane grinned at this and opened one of the two gym bags to reveal to himself and the driver that it was stacked to the brim with money, just as the other was, the drivers wide grew as large as dinner plates as crane skimmed one note off the top of one of the stacks and handed it to the driver with a big, smug grin "got change for a hundred" he asked innocently

"B… B… B….Buddy if I had change for $100 do you honestly think I'd be doing a triple shift?!"

"So that's a no then? Fair enough. Keep the change and enjoy your day off" smiled Crane as he left the cab. "Gee thanks mister, hey! Hey! You ever need a cab again ask the company for Sal alright?"

Crane had come to this apartment block because the night before on the way to the café he noticed that there was a sign saying the penthouse was for sale, the building looked pleasant enough so it will do for at least a temporary accommodation. He went up to the front desk and he said he was he about the vacancy and within minutes a very excitable and possibly homosexual man came bounding down the stairs to greet him and show him around. The apartment was beautiful with a view of half the city and even Titan Tower, it had plenty of room even came with a private garage kind of space compartment in the basement which could be the perfect place for him to cook up some of his fear gas. Crane immediately walked down to reception said to the receptionist he will take it, handed her $200,000 in hundred dollar bills (the process of which the receptionist counted these took about 10 minutes and half the contents of one of the gym bags) The receptionist was obviously very surprised by this method of payment but thought nothing of it, why would she? She was a trust fund daughter who was completely illiterate in the actions of criminals. She handed him the keys and wished him a pleasant day.

Now came the bit Crane was dreading, furniture… Crane hated the idea of going shopping for that crap alone as he really didn't have much of a clue about these sort of things and not much of an idea about what he even liked where that was concerned. Sitting on the floor of his new living room he had a very bad idea, he went down to the lobby and used the payphone to ring Raven on a number she had given him last night apon learning of his plans to move out.

30 seconds later Raven's cool voice came from the receiver "White?"

After taking a second to remember his ruse Crane grinned and replied " How did you know it was me?"

"Simple, the only other people who have this number are in the Tower, It's a slow afternoon. Starfire and Robin are loudly doing things to each other that are illegal in most countries, Beastboy is trying to give Cyborg a Mohawk or something equally stupid and I'm reading and talking to you. What do you want?" Asked Raven in an amused tone.

"What do you mean what do I want?" asked Crane frowning.

" Well you seem to be the kind of guy who does everything for a reason so I'm guessing you were gonna ask me something, you were right?"

"Well… yeah actually, listen I could do with a hand with my new apartment, do you fancy going shopping?"


End file.
